United Nations

Some of the most precious jewels of nature and civilization, including the historic Italian city of Venice, face the risk of global warmingFrom the glimmering coral of the Great Barrier Reef to Mount Fuji and the canal-crossed city of Venice, global warming may spell the final ruin of some of the most precious jewels of nature and civilization.

These are five sites at risk:   

For the first time since the creation of the United Nations 70 years ago, female candidates are being mentioned among the likely successors of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Venetia van Kuffeler writes in an article in the December-January issue of London-based Diplomat magazine.

The United States, Russia and the United Nations will hold three-way talks on the Syria crisis in Geneva on Dec. 11, U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura stated on Dec. 9. 

Hundreds of Syrian rebels and civilians began evacuating the last opposition-held district in the central city of Homs on Dec. 9 under a local cease-fire deal reached with President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on Wednesday signed the “Declaration of Athens” which seals the cooperation of the three countries within the framework of the third tripartite meeting.

The Turkish Armed Forces staged a cross-border aerial campaign in northern Iraq to hit outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets in the Kandil Mountains amid tensions with the central government in Baghdad over Turkey's deployment of troops near Mosul. 

On the occasion of the International Day against Corruption, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos received on Wednesday the head of Transparency International Greece Konstantinos Bakouros at the presidential mansion.

More than 9,000 people have been killed since the conflict in Ukraine began 20 months ago, the United Nations said Dec. 9, warning that even though fighting had abated, millions were in precarious situations.

The United States, Russia and the United Nations will hold three-way talks on the Syria crisis in Geneva on Dec. 11, U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura stated on Dec. 9. 

De Mistura told Reuters that the Dec. 11 Geneva talks that he initiated were part of "preparatory work," but he declined to go into detail. 

Agreements on the table signaling commitments by countries, regional governments and companies are promising for the prospect of tackling carbon emissions and energy transition, but a binding agreement is not likely to emerge from the COP21 Climate Summit in Paris, according to Samantha Smith, the head of the WWF Climate and Energy Initiative.